Some Survived: An Eyewitness Account of the Bataan Death March and the Men Who Lived Through It

This man lived through all the years of World War II as a prisoner of the Japanese. He and thousands of others were starved, beaten, denied any medical care and moved around continually in a successful effort to hide him and his fellow prisoners from the Americans. During the long years of captivity most of the men who were captured with him lost their lives, from disease, starvation or from being shot, or drowned when the ships that were carrying them were bombed by the Americans who had been denied information that American POWs were on the ships.The Bataan Death March occurred just after his capture. His descriptions of the horrors of this single action should be required reading for anyone who has questions about what actually happened in the orient. during WWII.Manny Lawton was a true hero. I was a child during this time, and remember vividly all the conversations around our dinner table about the War. With 6 cousins in service, Manny and his family from the area, and the depth of feeling about capture, I am delighted to add some information about a true American hero.Manny Lawton was from South Carolina, as I was, and his name was revered in our area.

I have personal interest in anything dealing with the Philippines and POW of the Japanese in WW II- my dad was with the 803rd Aviation Engineering Battalion of the US Army Air Corps at Clark Field Philippines when it was attacked on 8 December 1941 and he helped to defend Bataan. he surrendered along with the rest of the US and Filipino forces on Bataan on 9 April 1942 ans spend the next 3 1/2 years in Jap prison camps first at Cabanatuan Philippines and then on Kyushu Island in the Japanese home islands. He was in a POW camp Keisen-23 and was used as forced labor to mine coal for the Japanese.

Young people today have no clue what men did to other men because of race. The United States is the most faceless county on earth. This should be required reading in every university in the world.

Wonderful account done of terrible trial to be an American solider who surrenders to the Japanese in Phllipines in to 40's. Good won out agianst a very evil force in the culture of the enemy.. Let's hope we never come to the point of treating our enemies with such inhumanity. I had heard about the death march but not the brutaliy experieced, ,expressed and recorded by the survivors. At lesson woth communicating to the next generation.

I am a little biased as Manny Lawton was my cousin. I thought the book was very good. Excellent detail as to the suffering they endured. Amazing that any of them survived. Manny Lawton is also mentioned, and quoted, in the book "Ghost Soldiers" which is excellent read about the the rescue of POWs.. Very uplifting.

I am reviewing the 1984 hardback edition of this book which was entitled "Some Survived. An Epic Account of Japanese Captivity During WWII."Although this is not the first book on The Death March I have read, it is probably the best. It is well written and easy to read. The thing I liked best was the fact that not only did it give, in great detail, an eye witness account of the atrocities committed by the Japanese on American POW's in the Phillipines, it went on to describe life in the camps after the march, then on to a very detailed description of their treatment on the 'Hell Ships' that took the prisoners to prison camps in Japan.This is not a book of despair only. It is also of faith, guts, determination, and final victory by Manny Lawton and a few others that survived this horrible period of time. It also prompts us to remember those that didn't. God Bless them.

Emotional and gut wrenching account of one man’s remembrance of his time at war. A must read for anyone interested in the war.

I longed needed to know what really happened in the Bataan Death March since my father was in this horrific event in the Philippines back in WW2. He never really talked about it much but whenever he did, I took note. Years after his passing, I just had to read a book that depicted the experiences and treatment of the POWs and this book no doubt gave me the information I was looking for. All the things that my father briefly told me, i.e., the camps, the rifle butt blows in the head, being buried alive, etc., was validated. I just could not imagine such cruelty and atrocities the Japanese inflicted on the POWs and I also could not imagine surviving this myself. But for the few that survived, their spirit and the will to live was also unimaginable to me. They all must have been great men of strength and will. After reading this book, I realized more now what my father had endured and why the way he was after that. Thank you Manny Lawton for writing such a graphic and detailed book about this important event.